What Maquina de Fuego Has to Say

 About the Women's March (108,555 views as of 7:55 am today

What the President of Index Juárez Has to Say

Background:

The women's issue in Juárez has managed to connect in various ways two spheres the global corporate world has struggled to keep apart in the mindset of juarenses and the global audience only vaguely aware of things juarense:  first, the exceptional level of violence, much but not all of it drug cartel-related--not by any means just against women (look at the pictures below)--and second, the world-class productivity machine that Juárez has become in the past 40 years or so through "trade" and the successful location of industrial plants servicing the global corporate world.  Public discourse attempting to connect these two phenomena has been rigorously suppressed by a powerful and globally connected establishment.  The violence in Juárez is a cartel and cultural thing, and the maquila plants are part of our globalized world; there is no connection, punto, period, full stop.  Juarenses themselves are beginning to explore possible connections of dots.

Maquina's Metaphor

Maquina's argument (click here to see the video) is, in abbreviated form, as follows:  the premise of the march against women's violence is to disrupt the economy enough to make it hurt so that the state (that is to say, government, local, state, and national, and its allies) will begin to take more serious action against feminicides, most of which are cartel-related.  But, he says, the state and the cartels are "amigos."  It doesn't want to hurt its amigos.  The women's march is designed to hurt businesses so much they will put pressure on the state to do something.  But, Maquina argues, the state has a solution, which he embeds in the metaphor of a house, representing the state:  "We want to rob your house of enough value to make you pay attention to our plight," the feminists say.  "OK, the state responds, you are right, we deserve to be robbed."  We will allow you to rob the house but first we will take much of what is valuable in the house.  We will leave, say, a laptop, a small plastic table, so that it is clear that you robbed us. 

Thus, the state legitimizes the march because it is cheaper to do that than to confront the underlying problem, which is the violence.  The marches against violence, he argues, have become like all the holidays of the year--yes, one day of the year, the state says, you can not go to work and, yes, hurt business with our help.  It has become symbolic, like any ordinary holiday.  The feminists, he argues, are taken in by this ploy:  Wow, they say, we've made the NY Times, we were on the front page of a British paper, our numbers are growing:  the universities, local governments, labor unions--more and more people are agreeing with us.  But, Maquina argues, the feminicides will continue.

What the President of Index Juárez (association of maquilas) has to say about the march:  (click here for story in Diario)

In a press conference covered by Diario (click here) Pedro Chavira Gutiérrez, estimated that about 20% of the women working in the maquilas will join the national work stoppage--about 30,000 women.  He did not estimate the losses in business due to strike.  But he did think the loss of female workers at the customs checkpoints on the border would hurt the number of trucks crossing the border on Monday.  But he added that what is really hurting is Covid-19, which has already slowing the arrival of primary products from China.  According to a survey 19% of the maquila plants have had problems in the arrival of supplies due to the virus.  Diario goes on in this story to state that millions of women have said they would join the "el nueve ninguna se mueve" movement.  The major university (UACJ) in Juárez and the College of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Chihuahua in Juárez have not agreed to "systematically" stop classes today, but no one will "hold activities in those classrooms lacking teachers.  The federal government will permit absences without a paycheck deduction, and similar policies are being followed at other levels of government.